The simplest fastener for securing together two parts of a piece of clothing or lingerie is a hook or button or an array of such hooks or buttons.
In copending U.S. application Ser. No. 12/881,620 a magnetic brassiere back closure is described for securing together two garment strap ends having confronting faces. It has male elements mounted on the catch of one of the strap ends and a female element mounted on the face of the other strap end, generally complementary to the male element, and, with the faces touching or closely juxtaposed, slidably engageable in a fastening direction parallel to the faces with the male elements to fasten the two strap ends together. Respective male and female magnets on the strap ends are oriented so as to hold the strap ends in a finder position with their faces engaging or closely juxtaposed with each other and the male and female elements spaced in the direction and disengaged from each other so that displacement of the strap ends apart opposite to the fastening direction from the finder position will engage and lock together male and female elements.
Such an arrangement facilitates the actual closing or fastening operation but could stand improvement. In particular the closing operation is a two-step procedure of first generally aligning the elements in an opening/closing direction generally perpendicular to the plane of the fastener, and then shifting them in a fastening direction parallel to this plane. This action could be simplified.